Hang Fire, the fourth in Henry Kisor's Steve Martinez mystery series, -is taut and clean, tightly plotted and flows flawlessly.--Joseph Heywood, author of the Woods Cop mysteries When a pretty teacher is killed by a muzzle-loading ball during an encampment of historical re-enactors, Sheriff Steve Martinez is troubled by her role-playing -persona- as a frontier prostitute. Sex can be a motive for murder. But the death is ruled an accident. Besides, killing a person with a muzzle-loader takes way too much time and effort. The next few months, however, bring a surprising number of seemingly...

When the mutilated body of a black man is found hanging from a tree in Mackinac County 275 miles away across the wild Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Porcupine County Sheriff Steve Martinez is dismayed. His bailiwick is ninety-nine per cent white, and the victim, an army veteran, had just been acquitted by an all-white jury in the rape of a white woman. Steve had feared racial repercussions after the verdict and suspects bigotry led to the violent death of Billy Gibbs. But a mystery surrounds the victim himself. How could an ordinary truck mechanic possess such a large bankroll? Why was he so...